When you're a nerd, you know there's a million types of neurotic self-loathing. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Almost anyone can give me the willies. Man or woman, Asian, black or white, young or old. — Jesse Armstrong Asian Copy Share Image
Getting under the surface of real-life humans' poker faces humans is hard in a sitcom, even a drama. — Jesse Armstrong Comedy Copy Share Image
The Day Today' was at least as interested in satirising form as content. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
I'm in the game of realism so happy endings probably feel a little bit too neat for life. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Unlike many hour-long scripted American dramas, 'Succession' has very few standing sets. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
All the dramas I admire most - 'Six Feet Under,' 'The Sopranos' - even when the scenes aren't laugh-out-loud funny, per se,… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Under a government committed to cutting public services to the bone, the police are often left to clean up all sorts of… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Red Alert' is a gripping cold war bomber-command procedural. But read now, you can see 'Dr Strangelove' - the film which took… — Jesse Armstrong Cold Copy Share Image
We read the financial papers and there's a ton of tech and media mergers and acquisitions we're likely to take inspiration from. — Jesse Armstrong Acquisitions Copy Share Image
Hanging around a lot of really intelligent people for months on end, talking about whatever's in the news, is fun to me. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Hit shows are very difficult to achieve. You need to have everything just right - that's what's so terrifying. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Who has not stared at the blank page and not been able to think of anything to write for what at least… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
I'm relatively sensitive to the atmosphere of what places are like, what relationships are like, and the feeling of power in rooms. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
With an unscripted take, you let the thing live and bring an extra level of life to the performance. Sometimes you get… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
The camera reacts with the speed of a human being rather than somebody who knows what's going to happen next. And that… — Jesse Armstrong Comedy Copy Share Image
Sitcom characters, my writing partner Sam Bain and I sometimes tell each other, are not normally self-conscious. Or not quite. The best… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Without sounding defensive, I would say that sometimes TV critics assume that after a few episodes the writers 'finally understand the characters,'… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
When you talk to police communications staff and think about their job from an insider's point of view, you can see they… — Jesse Armstrong Communication Copy Share Image
I can just about enjoy it. There is an initial hurdle, where I feel like, oh goodness me, I'm going to watch… — Jesse Armstrong Competition Copy Share Image
I can't say I connected with many of my co-workers at Westminster. My MP's office was sandwiched between those of Peter Mandelson… — Jesse Armstrong Men Copy Share Image
I never got to see inside No 10, but I did once go to Ann Widdecombe's ministerial office under the Commons where… — Jesse Armstrong Diet Copy Share Image
It's a lucky kink for comedy writers that particular English obsession and interest with class and social difference. It maybe is not… — Jesse Armstrong Comedy Copy Share Image
There are lots of great characters in fiction who viewers and readers have engaged with that behave badly. Great characters can be… — Jesse Armstrong Books Copy Share Image
Some of the material in 'Peep Show' I wouldn't sit down and watch with even my parents, who are not easily offended. — Jesse Armstrong Easily offended Copy Share Image
There's an underlying sense that your family should accord you a greater level of safety in your interactions with them. When that's… — Jesse Armstrong Family Copy Share Image
We have characteristics we're born with, that are molded by the lives we live. And so to have a psychologically engaged show,… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Catch-22' is the big daddy of funny war novels. It's capacious and occasionally rambling. It's a bible of literate comedy: you can… — Jesse Armstrong Bible Copy Share Image
I'm uncomfortable with the word satire. In the U.K., there's quite a bit of sledgehammer weight to that word, which is the… — Jesse Armstrong Satire Copy Share Image
If you're on your way to meet your maker, you are not, are you, going to stop en route for a foot-long… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
There's a reason we have a lot of pomp and ceremony around coronations and the transfer of power in democracies. It's a… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
I was of that generation of NME-reading, indie fans. Part of the reason I went to Manchester was because of New Order… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
I suppose terrible things happen in the world all the time and some of them we feel a particular connection to and… — Jesse Armstrong Connection Copy Share Image
Between 1995 and 1997 I was a researcher for a Labour MP. And looking back I realise I wasn't a very good one. — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
Comedy is not good for anything, really. Apart from being one of the only things that makes life worth living. — Jesse Armstrong Comedy Copy Share Image
You've only got so much plot, character and psychological capital. One day it will be gone and you don't know when that… — Jesse Armstrong Character Copy Share Image
Writing a sitcom compared with writing a novel is a bit like the difference between going on a big, noisy group holiday… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
With my writing partner, Sam Bain, I have gone on to write for lots of shows, including our co-creation 'Peep Show,' two… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
The writers' room is an open forum where anything mad or weird that aggressively shakes up the show can be suggested and… — Jesse Armstrong Copy Share Image
